Scott campaign paid $5,000 to accused ballot broker

Update: Gov. Rick Scott's former campaign manager Susie Wiles said she's looking into why Scott's campaign paid Emelina Llanes. Generally speaking, she said, "The campaign hired contractors in various counties for almost exclusively get out the vote activities. They interacted with seniors and other groups to stress the importance of voting and to secure support for candidate Rick Scott at the time."

Gov. Rick Scott's campaign records show he paid $5,000 in 2010 to an alleged boletera, who was accused in Hialeah--during the 2011 mayor's race--of going door-to-door collecting absentee ballots from the elderly, according toThe Huffington Post and The Miami New-Times.

Scott's campaign could not immediately explain why a $5,000 check went to Emelina Llanes.

Melissa Sellers, a spokeswoman for the governor, would not comment, and referred the issue tothe Republican Party of Florida. RPOF spokesman Brian Burgess did not immediately answer a phone call Tuesday night.

In a bizarre case The Miami Herald reported Sept. 2, Llanes asked a distant relative to hold a bag of steaks in her freezer, and then she screamed of chest pains after she realized opponents were filming her as she went door-to-door in an apartment complex. Police found no ballots on Llanes, and she faced no charges.

Here's an excerpt from The Miami New-Times.

Consider: In 2010, even though he lost early voting and Election Day balloting in Miami-Dade County, Scott killed Democrat Alex Sink in absentee ballots by 20,745 votes. They helped provide the difference in Scott's one-percentage-point victory...

Records show the governor paid $5,000 to Emelina Llanes, a 74-year-old Hialeah resident identified as a boletera by former Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolaños and city firefighter Eric Johnson. Scott's campaign reports say the money was for "contract labor."

During Hialeah's mayoral race last year, Llanes worked for Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez. Bolaños and Johnson, who supported Hernandez's opponent, Raul Martinez, followed Llanes to public-housing apartment complexes at 1470 and 1480 W. 38th Place before the election. They claim they spotted Llanes going door-to-door to pick up absentee ballots from elderly residents — a violation of county law.